Lousewort, or Red Rattle

This bright plant is common all over the country. It grows in wet places, such as bogs and damp fields, and it is in flower from spring to autumn.

The Lousewort is a small plant and does not rise very far above the ground. The flowers are bright pink, and they grow singly at intervals up the main stem. The flowers are curiously shaped. The lower part is round, like a narrow pink tube, but at the mouth this pink tube becomes much wider and is divided in two. One half rises straight up and then bends over at the top like a hood. Inside the pink hood are hidden the yellow heads of the stamens. The other half of the flower is divided at the edge into three pink scollops, which fold back so that you can look inside the tube of the flower. After the pink flowers are withered the calyx-cup swells into a small bladder, and on windy days you can hear the seeds rattling inside this bladder.

The stem of the Lousewort is hairy, and the leaves grow very close to it. These leaves are made up of small fingers with deeply toothed edges, which grow in pairs on each side of the centre leaf-stalk. There are frequently six pairs of these fingers on one stalk, and there is always a single finger at the end of the stalk.

What do you think about Lousewort, or Red Rattle plants? Why not write a comment below.